


And So, We Aren't Alone Anymore

by Louise_McBear



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous enby Logan, Aromantic, Aromantic spectrum, Asexuality Spectrum, Human Sides (Sanders Sides), Lamp - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Queer platonic relationships, calm, polyamsanders - Freeform, qpr, surname soulmates au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-01 22:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15783540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louise_McBear/pseuds/Louise_McBear
Summary: They lived in a society where your soulmates are dictated by the word on your arm, a combination of each person's surname.But in a world where you're almost expected to be in love with your partner as soon as you meet them, they would find out that the system isn't entirely what they expected it to be.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Sanders Sides fic and is kind of a combination of everything I wanted to write in one prompt. But, I like the idea of the aroace-spec Sides and ive always wanted to do a soulmate au, so hopefully people like it!
> 
> (This is currently only half done, but I will post the second part as soon as I finish writing it.)

From the age of 16, Roman Edwards knew that living in a society where soulmates were predestined wasn’t all that he’d imagined it would be when he was younger.

The teachers at school had made it seem so simple, like something out of one of Roman’s favourite Disney films. Everyone has a surname written on their arm which combined the surnames of different people together. How many soulmates you had and what kind of people they were was indicated by the colours each part is written in. Most people had only two colours: their own and their soulmates’.

Instead, Roman had four.

For as long as he could remember, the word _Sanders_ had adorned his wrist like a navy blue, sky blue, purple and red watch. He knew that the red ‘s’ on the end was his part of the name, but the fact all four parts were so short meant he didn’t have much to help him guess the surnames of the other three people. All he would be able to do was hope that they had the word in a visible place on their arms as well.

Although this was the first complication Roman had with the system, he could handle it. After all, more soulmates meant more love, right? His two dads were soulmates and they were still enamoured with each other after decades, so the system must have some merit to it.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t where the difficulties ended, though he didn’t realise until his later teenage years.

Everyone knew that soulmates were the most romantic part of society. Since he’d been able to understand speech, everyone around Roman had talked about his future datemates and he himself had even imagined the ways in which he could be the most romantic soulmate possible.

That became a bit more difficult once Roman realised that, while he thought he had been ready for the inevitable romantic relationship that would come with soulmates, he experienced no romantic attraction towards anyone whatsoever.

Initially it had been easy to brush it off as Roman being dedicated to his future partners, but as more and more of his peers began dating their soulmates or even being romantically interested in people regardless of the names on their arms, it was harder to deny the truth.

Roman was aromantic and asexual. And for the first time in his life had no idea what he would do when he did eventually meet his soulmates.

* * *

Virgil Miller had been 12 when he realised he was gay, and 15 when he realised he was demiromantic.

The neighbourhood he grew up in was one that was somewhat pessimistic towards the idea of soulmates. His parents had both lost their soulmates when they were younger and, despite the comfort Virgil felt whenever he saw his part of the name (a purple ‘er’) almost being hugged between the sky blue and bright red letters, he knew that things didn’t always end in a happily ever after.

The only time he felt romantic attraction was as a pre-teen, when he suddenly realised he liked a childhood friend that lived next door. He’d been honest about his feelings and the other boy wasn’t able to reciprocate, but that was for the best.

Especially when that other boy found his soulmate a month later.

This wasn’t what confused Virgil though. No, with four soulmates he would have been surprised if he had been straight. What was more confusing was the fact that, by the age of 15, that seemed to be the only romantic encounter he’d experienced.

Sure, his anxiety had taken a turn for the worst in his teenage years, to the point that he isolated himself at school. But the fact that other students at school were asking out people they barely even knew suggested that this still wasn’t a widely known experience.

At the age of 15, Virgil was searching for terms online and finally found one that resonated the most; demiromantic seemed to be the best word he could use to identify. But this addition didn’t help with his apprehension towards finding his soulmates.

All of the idealistic images of soulmates in the media shows people falling in love immediately and everything being perfect. Would his soulmates be comfortable with being stuck with someone who can’t fulfil that image?

* * *

Patton Andrews grew up in a very liberal part of town, so he should have been as comfortable with his identity as anyone could get.

He had two mums and a dad, who had all endured a lot of prejudice when they were younger, for being an irregularity in a monogamous soulmate society. As such, they’d been as supportive as Patton could have hoped and he had grown up looking at his part of his word with nothing but pride and excitement for the future.

Even when he came out as gay at the age of 9. Even when he came out as grey-ace at the age of 13. Even when he came out as akioromantic at the age of 17 and for the first time felt unsure of what kind of a relationship he wanted with his soulmates.

For most of his life, Patton had seen how much his parents all loved each other and how this love created their daily routine. How they kissed each other every morning and went out on dates every Tuesday evening.

And Patton understood romantic attraction, something he himself had felt during his years as a teenager, and couldn’t wait to meet his soulmates. He just...didn’t want a romantic relationship with them. He wanted them to be more like a family.

He just hoped they would feel the same way.

He’d gone as far into the internet as possible and spoken to others who had similar experiences growing up. Some people had been romance repulsed and agreed to stay friends, much to the confusion of their friends and relatives; some people were romance indifferent or favourable, and were fine being in a romantic relationship with their alloromantic soulmates; a mix of these people were even in QPRs – Queer Platonic Relationships – with their soulmates, a concept Patton had been particularly eager to learn about.

Needless to say, when his parents let his own section up for the first time at the annual LGBT* meetup they helped organise, he knew exactly what kind of topic he wanted to do and hoped that his soulmates would have been as excited about it as he was, had they already met.

* * *

Logan Smith loved the concept of knowledge. The creativity needed to solve a puzzle; the drive required to push beyond the boundaries other people set for you; the satisfaction of succeeding and inevitably achieving your goal.

In fact, not only had Logan felt this way for most of his life (little surprise when his mother was a teacher and his ren was a scientist), but his enjoyment of learning as much as possible about many different subjects had made him the perfect student.

However, there seemed to be two mysteries Logan couldn’t figure out how to solve, even after trying to unlock them for most of his life: the presence of soulmates and the mysteries of attraction.

The first subject wasn’t a complete abyss of confusion. As a small child, Logan had grasped the reasoning for them in society fairly easily. No, it was the biological creation of soul marks that sent him to his parents, begging for an answer.

Unfortunately, both answers were as confusing as the other. When asking his mother, she just responded by only repeating the kind of information she would give to her students on the subject, which wasn’t nearly detailed enough to satisfy Logan. But, when he asked his parent, they just said they weren’t entirely sure themselves and that while they knew how the marks appeared on people, they still weren’t sure what dictated everyone’s marks and how people were paired together.

“But,” they argued, “That just makes our soulmates even more special, doesn’t it? Knowing how people were chosen to be together takes all the romance and mystery out of it.”

Logan didn’t agree.

In fact, maybe this was the source of his second constant mystery. What exactly is romance and romantic attraction? And why did everyone else seem to understand them so perfectly and so quickly?

By the time he was 16, Logan had had enough of being the only one in the dark and did what he always did when he didn’t understand – research things. It took a month for him to find a video explaining the basics of the aroace spectrum and another fortnight for him to find the word which described him best.

So, now he knew he was quoiromantic and asexual, which explained some things. But there were also areas of knowledge that Logan now felt further from figuring out than before.

And this is where the connections between the two mysteries connected, though with more malice than before. As he stared at the multi-coloured word on his arm, Logan didn’t understand what decided that he was going to be connected to these three other people.

Why would they force people to be bonded for life to someone who knew everything about every matter except those of the heart?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys had lived their lives trying to struggle on their own.  
> At the age of 17, it was finally time for them to meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this in the first chapter, but the name for this fic came from the song And So, We Aren't Alone Anymore, by Little Glee Monster. Some of you may know it as one of the ending themes for My Hero Academia, but I really love the song so would highly recommend it, even if you haven't watched the series.
> 
> Not sure if I need to put a warning, but there is a tiny mention of death in the chapter. Nothing major, just extra lore for this version of the soulmate au.
> 
> Alright. Thank you for all the support you've given me so far and I hope you enjoy the last part!

The four boys were 17 when they finally met. 

It was the first time Patton was helping properly at his parents' meetup and he couldn’t help but feel like everything had to be perfect. It was one of those days where he knew something big was going to happen, but he just didn’t know what.

Adjusting the green and purple letters on the title of his board, Patton tried to calm down a bit by looking at his handiwork properly for the first time. There was a lot of important content that he’d wanted to cover, but by the time Patton had finished his aroace board, the information had been cut down enough that anyone could understand, even without paying too much attention.

His parents had booked a large hall in the middle of the city, but, despite the amount of items decorating the room, Patton had successfully managed to snag a table in the corner closest to the door. Yep, after all the time he’d put into this project, he was definitely proud of it!

“Woah, nice layout.” A voice rang out behind him. When Patton turned, he was faced with a guy his age wearing a purple and black hoodie, staring at the board.

Patton grinned in response. “Thanks! I’ve been here a couple of years with my parents, but there never seemed to be anything for aroace folk. So, I thought a change was needed this year.”

“You don’t say. Well, nice to see all of my identity being represented for once.” 

If possible, Patton’s grin widened further at the prospect of meeting someone he could relate to in teal life.

“I’m Patton, by the way. Patton Andrews!” He introduced himself, sticking his hand out.

But, for some reason the other boy didn’t take the handshake, instead staring at the uncovered name on Patton’s arm.

“Oh yeah, I forget that people get confused by my mark sometimes. I’ve got three soulmates, hence the four colours.” He continued.

The boy just shook his head though. “It’s not that, it’s just... I wasn’t expecting this to happen today.”

Seeing Patton’s confusion, the boy finally took his hand to shake it. “Sorry about that. I’m Virgil... Virgil Miller.”

He suddenly seemed slightly more anxious, but also happy. Though, Patton wasn’t entirely sure of why this is until Virgil lifted his left sleeve up slightly.

Just enough to see a matching name on his arm.

* * *

 

Roman sighed as his parents went through the double doors ahead of him. It was tradition for them to go to these meetups and, after seeing Roman being so down over the past few months, they thought it would be a good idea for him to come along.

He had come out to both of them a week after he found out about being aroace himself. Unsurprising, considering Roman had never found it easy to keep secrets, and his parents were more than supportive. But, at the same time, they knew that they couldn’t quite give the support that Roman needed about his soulmate woes.

All three of them were hoping that there might be people at the meetup with more unusual experiences of soulmates who would at least be able to tell Roman that everything would eventually be alright. Still, he tried to be optimistic about all outcomes; if he couldn’t find someone like that, he could at least see if there was anyone his age he could befriend.

Surprisingly both hopes seemed to be within grasp as soon as Roman went inside the hall, as his eyes fell on a table in the corner, where two teenagers were avidly chatting by an information board that Roman hadn’t been expecting to see.

Trying to stroll confidently up to the table, it seemed that the two boys were too engrossed in their conversation to notice he was there. No worries, it was probably something important, so Roman could just look at the display while he waited.

Roman couldn’t help but show the amazement on his face as he read the information off the board. It had taken him years to find out that the concept of being aroace even existed and here was an iridescent display of everything he needed to know summed up in fun colours.

“I’m glad you like it!” Roman heard a voice laugh next to him. When he turned around, he saw that the two had finished their conversation and were now looking at him.

“It is truly magnificent. Did you make this?” Roman asked the boy in the light blue polo.

“Yep! I’ve talked to a lot of people over the past few months with more knowledge about the aroace spectrum than me, so all I needed to do was ask for their permission to share what they said, and back it onto some pretty card.”

The boy then frowned. “The only thing I’m disappointed with is that I only had room for the most basic stuff. There’s a lot more that I would've liked to have covered.”

“It’s still pretty amazing, Patton.” The boy in purple spoke up. “I didn’t even know that half of these words existed until today.”

Roman nodded in agreement, though there was a question he was dying to ask if Patton had more information to give.

“You talked with other people about more than just identities, correct? Did you ever talk about... soulmates?” He asked hesitantly.

Patton's expression seemed to brighten in response. “Oh yeah, Virge was just asking me about that before you! It kinda depends on how romance repulsed or favourable you and your soulmate are. Some people I talked to are in romantic relationships, regardless of their levels of attraction, some people just stay friends, and some people form QPRs.”

“What’s that?” The other boy – Virge? – asked.

“QPR stands for queer- or quasi-platonic relationship. Essentially, it’s a non-romantic relationship which often has the same level of commitment as a romantic relationship.” Patton explained.

“You mean, people are alright with the idea of having a non-romantic soulmate?” Roman clarified.

“I sure hope so! I mean, no offense Virgil, but I’m akioromantic myself, so I’m not hugely fond of starting a romantic relationship.” Patton responded.

Virgil just breathed a sigh of relief. “That's fine. I’m demi anyway, so I’ve panicked a lot about finding my soulmate and having to immediately be in love with them.”

Something suddenly clicked in Roman's mind. “Wait, you two are soulmates?”

“Yep!” Patton said proudly, holding Virgil’s hand. “We found each other about 10 minutes ago. Isn’t it great?”

“One down, two more to go.” Virgil joked.

“Oh... I must admit, I didn’t think having three soulmates was too common an experience.” Roman commented. 

Virgil frowned in response. “No, I wouldn’t have said it was. Sorry, I don’t think we got your name.”

“Ah, my apologies. Roman Edwards, at your service!” Roman introduced himself with a flourish.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Patton Andrews and this is Virgil Miller. If you don’t mind me asking, would you say you put the ‘Roman’ in aromantic?” Patton asked.

“I suppose I would, yes. Though I’m not very open about it at the moment.” Roman have a small smile. But, while saying this, the gears in his head were turning. Two other people with three soulmates? And the surnames and main colours certainly fitted with his mark.

Could it be..?

“One last question, though this one is slightly more personal.” He said. “Would one of you mind showing me your soulmate mark?” 

The two looked at each other, before Patton nodded and held his wrist up from behind the table. For the first time in his life, Roman truly had no words, but he hoped the broad grin across his face gave away everything the other two needed to know.

* * *

 

After almost half an hour of being dragged around the room by his parents, Logan had finally been allowed to go off on his own. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be here; on the contrary, Logan had been extremely interested in coming to the meetup. But, when his parent kept seeing people they knew and having rather dull conversations with them, it felt like escaping was the best option.

Not to mention the fact that there were information boards lining the walls that he was itching to get a look at. They all seemed to be on a range of subjects, ranging from information on projects supporting LGBT* individuals, to facts about m-spec identities, to a section entirely dedicated to talking about the trans and non-binary communities (the latter being a subject Logan felt he might need to research further later).

When he was reaching the last board, he was extremely pleased at the green and purple colour-scheme promising information on the aroace spectrum. As he got closer, there were three boys all talking enthusiastically, one of whom Logan presumed was the creator of the display.

Initially, he had assumed they were all as excited to be learning new information as he was, and Logan was hopeful that he may be able to have an enlightening conversation with them. However, once in hearing range, it appeared that they were talking about a slightly different subject.

“I knew we were gonna have to meet eventually, but finding two soulmates in one day? It’s a bit of a surprise, to say the least.” The one in purple admitted. Ah, so it seemed that the three of them were soulmates and had only just met. Did that mean Logan would be intruding by going over to them?

“Well, we've only got one letter left and it’s the first one, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard to find the last person. Who knows, maybe they’ll even show up today as well!”

The one in light blue reasoned. That’s funny. So they had four soulmates in all as well. In that case, it makes sense that they would have the same issue as Logan in some of the parts only being a letter long, including his own.

“We'll find them soon enough, I’m certain of it. After all, there can’t be too many people with the word ‘Sanders’ on their arm!” The one in red proclaimed. Wait... Did he say... Sanders? No, it couldn’t be. 

While Logan didn’t want to seem like he had been eavesdropping the entire time, he needed to be certain of his suspicions. With that in mind, he began walking up to the group trying to focus more on the information board than the faces suddenly facing him.

“Greetings,” Logan nodded to them. Unsure of where to go with the conversation, he quickly scanned the board, settling on where the words ‘quoiromantic’ and ‘asexual' were proudly pinned up diagonally from each other. He pointed them out to the boys. “I must say, it’s a nice change to be able to see my identity represented for once.”

The boy in blue's face became calmer. “I see. You're just as _ace_ as the rest of us!”

The purple boy groaned. “Patton, you’ve made that joke five times already since I met you.”

“So? It’s part of my duty to the community!” Patton replied.

Logan then turned to the group completely. “The name is Logan Smith, by the way. Pleasure to meet you all.”

At this, they all seemed to exchange looks rapidly, Patton and the boy in red becoming more visibly excited. Logan had a feeling they were all thinking the same thing as he was.

The boy in red stepped forward and stretched out a hand. “I’m Roman Edwards, the Nightmare before Christmas is Virgil Miller and the literal ray of sunshine is Patton Andrews.”

So the names definitely fitted. At this point, Logan seemed almost certain of what was going on. After maintaining eye contact with Roman for a second, they simultaneously pulled their sleeves up enough to see the words printed underneath, completely confirming his suspicions.

“I must say, I was expecting more of a slow build up to meeting all of you, but I suppose meeting all at once makes things a lot easier.” Logan commented.

Patton let out a squeal of excitement before pulling Virgil in to form a closer group, both of them pulling their sleeves up as well. From a distance, Logan thought it probably seemed like an unusual sight, especially when they kept staring at each other’s arms.

But, they seemed to be doing something right, as the colours quickly got brighter, forcing all of them to briefly look away.

By the time they looked back, the words were no longer multi-coloured, but were now a solid black, almost as if they had been completely filled in. From what Logan had been told at a young age, they would now stay like this until one of them passed away, at which point the word would switch back to colour and whoever died would have a pale version of their colour.

But, now was not the time to be thinking about death and when Logan looked up, he was very quickly distracted by the expressions on everyone’s faces. It was like they were all so excited that they couldn’t believe what was happening, while at the same time being confused as to how to proceed from here. Is this the part where they are supposed to form a romantic bond for life and ride into the sunset. While that would be extremely impractical, Logan didn’t have much experience other than watching films and TV shows.

“So, what now?” Roman asked, reading all of their minds.

“Well, if no one’s against it, I have an idea.” Patton suggested. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I know at least a few of us would be uncomfortable with the idea of dating. So, do you think we could maybe try a QPR?”

Initially no one responded, not wanting to talk for the other individuals. Eventually though, Logan knew he had to say something.  
“I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m certainly not against the notion. Worst case scenario, if it doesn’t work out, we regroup and think of an alternative.” He reasoned. The other two nodded at that.

“You took the words right out of my mouth, Microsoft Nerd!” Roman proclaimed.

“Sounds good to me.” Virgil added.

From the bright smile Patton gave in response, Logan could see why Roman referred to him as a way of sunshine. In fact, the decision seemed to make them all feel brighter and lighter, Roman and Patton showing it in a more enthusiastic manner, while Virgil merely wore a soft smile.

It was at this point that Logan recalled a quote he saw while doing his research on soulmates. It hadn’t made much sense at the time, but now it seemed to have more merit.

_‘A soulmate is not someone that comes into your life peacefully. It is someone who makes you question things, who changes your reality, someone that marks a before and after in your life. It is not the human being everyone has idealized, but an ordinary person, who manages to revolutionize your world in a second.’_

As Logan looked at the three people in front of him, each completely different but utterly mesmerising all the same, he finally began to understand what the quote meant.

Soulmates were not people who expect you to conform to societies expectations with them for the rest of your lives, but people who take the things you see as weaknesses and help you turn them into strengths, just as you do for them.

Being in a group of people who immediately understood his experiences and had lived through the struggles of living in an amatonormative society also, Logan knew that while he still hadn’t figured out the mysteries of attraction but he was beginning to understand the appeal of soulmates.

And maybe, just maybe, he could say that that was all he needed to know for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case anyone was wondering, the soulmate quote at the end is from https://www.lovequotesmessages.com/soulmate-quotes/


End file.
